RowingIreland will not start the lightweight fours men's final tomorrow morning as favourites but in terms of the stroke position, they don't come much tougher than Paul Griffin. After qualifying on Thursday morning, Niall O'Toole, the grand old man of this crew, laughed as he summed up the qualities of his team-mate.
"He is probably - and I say with real conviction - he is the toughest guy in Irish sport. He is just so, so hard. He's a Kerryman and it is very hard for me to say that, me being a Dub, because we always think we are a bit harder than them boys down there. But he is a tough, tough bit of work.
"He is not built for the sport from a height position but he makes up for it in heart. He is such a racer. And it's great to sit into the boat with somebody like that."
Although the Irish were the slowest of the six qualifiers, they will take to the water tomorrow (7.10 a.m. Irish time) in a fearless mood.
Although exhausted after Thursday's race, when they fended off a late push from the Russians, they were adamant an appearance in an Olympic final was not necessarily the summit. But Griffin, anxious to meet up with his family and friends, was careful to savour it for a few hours.
"Olympic final. It sounds good, doesn't it? It's the first time I have batted the word around since . . . ever. It was always the Olympics but the Olympic final now is a different animal. We have to go for it. We have to. We went for it today and we are sure as hell going to go for it."
After their heat, the Irish four got together to have a long, and at times graphic, conversation. Although they made it through to the semi-finals, their time of 5:58.99 was not to their liking.
"Today it felt like the Olympics. Like, last Sunday we squared up to each other and looked at each other and said we would have to grow horns today if we wanted to be in the Olympic final," said Griffin.
"And we were good and aggressive; there was serious power going on behind. I could feel it. It was a different unit. And it was a great feeling to have that power behind me - everybody was really up for me and in that 500 when we tried to seal our fate."
The last 500 metres of the semi-final were just a slog, a question of holding on to what they had. The surge of pain Griffin felt shoot through his legs and chest at the finish line was as demanding as anything he has ever known.
"It felt brutal. It was really hard. But you don't let go of a qualifying position no matter how hard it hurts. We just hung every muscle fibre in our bodies off them oars today. And we got our reward."
They race this morning against a field that includes a terrifically quick central pair of Italy and Denmark. The Danes, with cult hero Eskild Ebbesen at stroke and Thomas Ebert part of the crew that set the world best time (5:45.60) in Lucerne five years ago, will be favourites for gold, with the Italians expected to provide the main opposition.
Ireland, rowing in lane six, line up alongside the Netherlands, who finished over a second ahead of them in the semi-final. The Italians, the Austrians and the Danes have all recorded times of 5:55-plus in those semi-finals but Ireland will have a heat qualifying time of 5:52.54 as their best.
And as Griffin points out, an Olympic final means a brand-new slate: "We knew we had the calibre in the boat coming over here but the Olympics is a tough business and we still had to go out and prove it. We will watch a video of that semi-final soon and then it is a brand new slate. We are going to go for it.
"We just have to get things together for Sunday. My family and friends are here - I will suck their happiness in and try and get a bit of motivation from them as well."
